IrfanPaint Support Thread

[matera]

Vorchek - are you cloning from a single reference point, or have you set it more than once? The brush won't restart at the same place you set, it maintains a relationship with whatever point is set using the Control key. If you move the brush to where the point it would paint from is off the canvas, there is nothing to paint. Try using a very simple image and observing the ghost cursor that starts at the set reference point and follows the brush movement at a distance. It is hard to see on a complex background.

[Vorchek]

I am cleaning scanned images, so I use many reference points within each image. I am aware of what you call the "ghost cursor" although I have never understood its function. Regardless, I paid attention to the points you made, yet the problem still reappears. After a while the cloning stops working, or the effects appear in the wrong place. When that occurs I can not figure out any sure-fire way to regain control, save to close the program, and, occasionally, to restart my computer.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I am aware of what you call the "ghost cursor" although I have never understood its function.

When you first select the clone brush the cursor shows a No Entry cursor.
After you right-click on the source to clone from, the source point is selected.

Then, after you start painting the target point is selected and it remains relative to the source or the ghost cursor, which moves to show the source that you're copying from.

To move the source, right-click again, and start painting again with the left mouse button.

[matera]

If V. is using the older non-beta version, it is Ctrl+leftclick, not rightclick, to set the point. I think we are all getting a bad case of spinning head. The relationship between the starting reference point, the active brush point, and the floating reference point is hard to describe. with the older versions I always had to click a second time after setting the point to start the cloning. I never had any problem with the function stopping, with any version, but maybe it is some odd difference in the system?

[MItaly]

I don't think that differences in the system may alter the way the clone tool works, there's no system-dependent code in it.

[Vorchek]

"Then, after you start painting the target point is selected and it remains relative to the source or the ghost cursor, which moves to show the source that you're copying from."

Although this has nothing to do with my trouble, I am curious. Once the ghost cursor has moved, it is no longer showing the source I'm copying from, so what is its purpose then?

[Vorchek]

That makes sense. I use Windows XP like millions of others. Obviously my problem is not known or common. The tool simply stops working, or behaves strangely, cloning in the wrong place-- not where I'm clicking, in other words. Perhaps I should remove the entire Irfanview program from my machine, re-install, and see if that fixes it. Unless there are other suggestions, I will give that a try.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Although this has nothing to do with my trouble, I am curious. Once the ghost cursor has moved, it is no longer showing the source I'm copying from, so what is its purpose then?

Yes it is. It always shows that part of the picture that is being copied to the target.

[Vorchek]

How about that. It doesn't on mine! No wonder I didn't have any idea what it was for.

[Vorchek]

So I un-installed and re-installed, with absolutely no result. Nothing has changed. I suppose I can use GIMP for cloning, which is a pity, because its interface is a lot less smooth to use. Thank you, gentleman, for the help.

[MItaly]

Can you make a screenshot of what appears while you are cloning?

[MItaly]

BTW, this is what appears after you clone, not while.

[MItaly]

IrfanPaint b0.4.10.59 released

The new IrfanPaint beta release includes the following changes:

• added tolerance for the floodfill and color replacer tool;
• improved speed of the color replacer tool;
• fixed a bug of the text tool (it always used transparent background with hatched brushes);
• improved a little the efficiency of the AdvEraser code;
• changed to transparent the background of many labels and controls (the opaque BG was visible in some strange Windows color combinations);
• fixed the wrong behavior of the precision cursors when an exception is catched;
• added exception handling code to the About dialog;
• added a new support class for B/W DIB used as masks (now the "masked tools" use it);
• great changes in the DibSection class (now is possible to access pixels without the intermediation of the Windows GDI);
• other small changes in the code.

With this release I think that I've reached all the objectives for the next stable release, so I don't think I'll add other features before it; now it's bugfixing and translations time. I'll create a language file template ASAP; stay tuned!

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

added tolerance for the floodfill and color replacer tool

Amazing! It works beautifully. That will please a lot of users.

With this release I think that I've reached all the objectives for the next stable release, so I don't think I'll add other features

Was there a problem with moving the text dialogue out of the way so that we can see the text when we click on "Hold to Preview."

[MItaly]

Was there a problem with moving the text dialogue out of the way so that we can see the text when we click on "Hold to Preview."

Moving the window while a user is holding a button down is quite problematic; I may make also the mouse cursor move so that it stays on the button, but it's counterintuitive. I also have other problems in moving the window, i.e. I don't know exactly how much space the text will take before rendering it. What about making the window half transparent while the button is held down?